Good Evening.

The fishing now has a rather bleak and desperate feel to it. The lake looks uninviting and lifeless. It is asleep. Just like my little Robin searching for scraps of food I carry on each day looking for a possible way to catch a carp. I feel like I am running out of answers, I have tried everything; the session now has reached the sticking point. You could say it has become a pointless exercise, but, this is often the reality of winter carp fishing. No one said it was going to be easy.

He is easy to capture!

Despite the above paragraph I owe it to myself to fight the good fight. Throwing in the towel is not what winners do, and you are only a loser if you don’t try in the first place. I need the change of scenery and I need a new water to gaze at, but there is still more work to be done before I give in and move on. If I look back to last year at Cassien, January was a desperate month, as was the first week of February. January was saved by the capture of a 26.8kg mirror on the first of the month, and then things got tough. I suppose I am now suffering from Déjà-vu and experiencing a similar state of affairs on a different lake in a different country and that just makes it a greater challenge. One more carp would finish off my session perfectly and I am going to give it my all to try and achieve this.

Looking for some answers!

I have redone all the rods today. I tied a couple of new rigs and replaced the hook on my 360 rig. I am always wary of hook sharpness and the back of my hand resembles a pin cushion where I test the hook point for sharpness. At this time of year one take could be the only chance you are offered and a blunt hook is no excuse for a loss if you could have replaced it. My long range rod was retrieved and put back in a position I have tried before. I armed this rod with a supersize offering to see if that might tempt a carp. My shallow rod from the carp spot had a new hook, a new combination of two pop ups adorned the hair and I dropped it back on the sandy lakebed in the area of the riverbed. The reed rod has been moved further out and placed on a hump in 6ft of water. All I can do is try new approaches and new surroundings and see if could make the difference.

A very large mouthful!

A new hook and new combo.

The water temperature remains cold at 4 degrees. Cat ice has greeted me the past three mornings in the margins but last night was a little milder and it kept it at bay today. I have checked the weather forecast as it did start to snow a little today. It was not forecast and the weather looks quite constant for the coming ten days – not much above 3 degrees in the day, not much below minus 3 degrees at night, and limited sunshine with no rain.

A basket of fries to accompany my afternoon movie!

Italy is cold but not as cold as the setting for the film!

Due to the Groundhog Day experience I am going through I gave in yesterday and watched a film in the afternoon and also one this afternoon! I don’t have my dvds but I found some old films on a website where they are streamed onto your screen, meaning you don’t even have to download them. It is completely free but the films are very old and if you want to watch new ones then you have to pay. Both films that I chose to watch, just out of coincidence, bear a strange resemblance to my life if you think long and hard about it for a moment. The first was a film called ‘The boy in the plastic bubble’ starring John Travolta in probably his first role. He has no immune system and has to live in a sterilised bubble for most of his early years. My bivvy now resembles that bubble! The second film starred John Hurt and Hayley Mills and was called ‘Cry of the Penguins’. It is about a scientist who goes to live on his own for six months in the Antarctic to study a colony of penguins. They both made me chuckle and it passed an hour or so each afternoon.

My wood pile has now pretty much gone. I am now going to go and gather some fallen branches off the ground and build a fire to restore some energy. I have some nice chicken to cook and some alarms to listen out for in case I get a take. The will power is still strong but unfortunately the confidence is quite low. There is the slight sense that I may be flogging a dead horse at the moment but then you never know do you. Tonight or tomorrow morning could bring what I am looking for.

Back tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs.